All aboard the Regent’s Canal Floating Cinema

On the waterfront: cinema barge set for summer return

Following its success in 2011, the Floating Cinema is readying itself for a summer return to the waterways of East London, with a diverse programme of screenings, performances, talks, tours and film-related activities in the offing.

The Floating Cinema is a converted 1930s Regent’s Canal barge, transformed by architecture firm Duggan Morris to include a glass auditorium, three public deck areas and a decorated interior with copper-clad boxes and magenta coloured curtains.

“The cinema is similar to a glowing box – it is like a jewel on the water,” says UP Project curator Laura Harford.

East London will be at the heart of this year’s programme of events, curated by artists Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie and based on the theme of the ‘extra-ordinary’.

“The Floating Cinema will look at the people of East London who might be ordinary in the everyday but who are actually quite extraordinary in what they do,” says Harford.

‘My East London’, a competition to find a tour leader knowledgeable about East London and ‘Water Folk’, an intergenerational educational project on minute creatures living in canals and waterways, are some of the highlights of events with particular focus on the community.

Also on the bill is a documentary film competition produced with BRITDOC, as well as a live art performance in partnership with the Live Art Development Agency and a 24-hour horror film marathon.

Starting off in Hackney, the cinema will navigate the waters of Tower Hamlets before venturing into the Lea Valley, where Channel 4 presenter Brendan Walker and the writer and Lea Valley expert Jim Lewis are scheduled to give an industrial history tour.

The Floating Cinema Extra-Ordinary will showcase works by emerging and established artists. Through live streaming, UP Project hope to make these artworks available to a local and international audience.

Further information can be found at:
The Floating Cinema
UP Projects